Nemish had quite a ride at Metaphor

Jeff Frank - North County Times

I held off writing about the end of Jim Nemish's run as the
owner of the Metaphor Cafe because I wanted to make sure he was
actually gone.

This cat has had more lives than Garfield in the 15 years since
the funky little piece of local color opened in Escondido in 1989
with a sign on the wall reading, "No Drugs, No Booze, No Bozos."
Through health problems and financial struggles that included a
1998 bankruptcy, Nemish somehow managed to keep the doors open.

Reports of the Metaphor's numerous "demises" seemed to be as
exaggerated as reports of Mark Twain's "death." This time, though,
it is for real. As of the end of August, Nemish has moved on to
adventures yet unknown.

Finding him in Las Vegas in the middle of last week seemed to
seal the deal, as did walking into the cafe at the corner of
Juniper Street and East Second Avenue on Friday and not seeing him
there. That was a first, for the one constant about the Metaphor
was Nemish.

He'll tell you, as he told me, that the customers made the
place. Certainly, in some ways, that is true. Pretty much
everything in the Metaphor -- furnishings, artwork, books and music
-- was donated by those customers. But Nemish provided the heart
and soul.

The coffeehouse was a payback for kindness extended to Nemish by
community members as he recovered from two major surgeries in the
late 1980s. Then the owner of a group of hair salons, Nemish wanted
to open a place where people could be comfortable chatting,
listening to music and being themselves.

More than a few young people, apparently, were steered down the
right path because the Metaphor gave them a place to go, away from
negative temptations, while Nemish provided an understanding
ear.

"Jim was able to attract and offer a safe place for a lot of
kids who would never touch a program at church," said the Rev. Earl
Guy, pastor of the nearby First United Methodist Church.

He also gave exposure to musicians and musical genres hard to
find anywhere else. Everything from Dixieland jazz to gypsy music
from punk rock to poetry has been featured on the Metaphor
stage.

Some of the best entertainment may have come from political
discussions, with the opinionated Nemish often involved, among
customers seeking to solve the world's problems.

Nemish did it all on a shoestring. In the early days, his
earnings from the hair salon next door kept the Metaphor afloat. He
never really earned much money from the cafe, he said, and he gave
some of it back to people in need to whom he would give a couple of
bucks to sweep the sidewalk.

"The time had come," said Nemish, in explaining why he was
moving on. The good news is that both he, and the cafe, sold to
Metaphor regular Gayle Calhoun, will remain a part of
Escondido.

You can find a coffeehouse on almost every corner, but the
Metaphor, and Nemish, are undeniably unique.